


jailbird song

by kuro49



Series: 200 subs promptathon of 2020 [18]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, M/M, Post RHATO 25, Pre-Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23486860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: Alfred once told him:You’re no good to Batman if you’re dead. Robin was underwater and descending, Batman was not breathing. Jason was willing to make that trade.
Relationships: Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne
Series: 200 subs promptathon of 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622572
Comments: 4
Kudos: 86





	jailbird song

**Author's Note:**

> prompted by frostbite883 [on tumblr](https://setsailslash.tumblr.com/post/614317788279046144/if-batman-stopped-red-hood-aka-jason-todd-from): If Batman stopped Red Hood aka Jason Todd from killing The Penguin (in Red Hood and the Outlaws #25) by beating him up fast and hard, what would the Dark Knight do with RH after he carried him to the Batcave?
> 
> rhato 25 still makes me DD:<

It’s not cold and the bed is not the functional but less than comfortable cot in the medical bay of the Cave. Jason thinks he knows this place, he just never thought he would return to it.

“Cobblepot isn’t dead.”

It’s the very first thing Bruce finds in himself to say when Jason manages to open his eyes. Jason is breathing through his teeth, trying not to struggle against the Bat-grade handcuffs keeping his wrists bound together as he lays there in what he can now confirm as his childhood bed with Bruce sitting on the edge next to him like any of this is somehow normal. It really fucking isn't.

“ _Surprise_.” Jason is deadpanned in his answer and he almost wishes it would echo as though he was in the Cave itself. Let the sound fall from between his cracked lips, still tasting of rust inside of his mouth.

The room in itself doesn’t look disturbed aside from the bed he is tucked into and the medical equipment still keeping the pain at bay for him. But Jason isn’t fooled into thinking there aren’t multiple contingencies already put into place to keep him from getting out of here unless Bruce wanted him gone. And he has a feeling Bruce has no intention of letting him go.

It’s Jason’s tenacity against Bruce’s paranoia. And Bruce always wins.

“You know.”

It should be a question but it never does sound like one when it comes from Bruce. But here is something Bruce should know. Jason doesn’t do what he doesn’t mean.

If he wanted Oswald Cobblepot dead, the man would be very much so.

“What _do_ you know about trust?” Jason narrows his eyes at Bruce. Struggling against the cuffs even if he full well knows it’s futile. Jason has been by Batman’s side long enough to know the secret to these cuffs, that it will take nothing short of Bruce’s own fingerprints to unlock them. “Nothing, Bruce. The answer is nothing. I can follow your rules to a tee but you’d still have something to complain about, won’t you?” He thinks he’s breathing too hard when he finally pauses, he _knows_ he’s showing too much when he finally asks. “So, what do you really want from me?”

The question of the decade aside, Bruce looks tired, looks exhausted really. “I—”

It makes Jason want to laugh at the sight of resignation on Bruce's face. He wants to laugh, harsh and cruel and mean and tough. He wants to make Bruce hurt just as bad as he’s been hurt. But he swallows it all back down when Bruce reaches out and threads a warm hand into his hair, brushing his bangs back.

Like the man still sees Jason underneath the way his skin has turned black and blue.

It startles Jason down to all the parts of him he wasn’t sure survived the beating or the blast.

“I told you once, Jay." Bruce says to him. "If you ever left, it’d be your choice.”

Same words but in a nearly different world now. And Jason’s so angry at himself when he registers the dampness at his lashes. He is blinking back tears from his eyes with how gentle Bruce is being with him. It’s not new, but it has been so, _so_ long.

“So I’m going to ask you again, Bruce.” Jason wants to keep a steady voice but he’s pretty sure it shakes through. He almost wishes these cuffs could cut down to the skin but they don’t. Padded on the inside yet viciously snug. “What’s yours?”

Alfred once told him: _You’re no good to Batman if you’re dead._ Robin was underwater and descending, Batman was not breathing. Jason was willing to make that trade.

Same night, same dock, rain still falling overhead, Jason got Bruce breathing once more.

In those very moments, what Alfred and Bruce once told him meant he was important. It meant he was loved and cared for. Those moments have long since past. Those feelings have long since twisted out of shape.

“I won’t have you leave again.” Bruce says to him.

Bruce looks guilty but not enough to stop. When Bruce leans down, his thumbprint unlocks the cuffs just as his mouth touches Jason's. It’s not life he breathes into him.

Still the struggle goes completely out of him.


End file.
